Through Yellow Eyes
by EcoSeeker247
Summary: He was a Necromorph. He was only an experiment engineered to silence the uninfected, but perhaps there was something still alive underneath. The only question was, could he get it back, even with the odds against him? *Three-shot with game spoilers!*
1. Awakening

All right! So this is a totally random idea that I came up with, and I've decided to write a short story here. This idea popped up when I was checking out the Hunter's page on the _Dead Space _Wiki site, and one of the trivia points said that apparently, you can hear the Hunter say Isaac's name at the beginning of Chapter 8. I probably didn't notice it when I first went through the game because I was nervously anticipating what would happen in the rest of the chapter (there are a lot of things I didn't notice the first time that I took note of during my second playthrough). When I searched for this in a video, it seemed to be true, and so this story was born! It's not going to be a long story, maybe about three chapters long, and entirely from the Hunter's POV. While it's clear that the Necromorphs are dangerous, I don't think they're mindless, which is another reason I'm writing this story. I hope you enjoy it all the same! :)

**DISCLAIMER: **Everyone belongs to Visceral Games and EA.

**WARNING: **There are _Dead Space _spoilers throughout this story.

* * *

Have you ever woken up from a dream, only to find that you couldn't remember anything? Or that you knew exactly what was going on in the dream, only to have it disappear the instant you opened your eyes? I have.

The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was a blinding, white light. My pupils contracted painfully, and I could see red in the corner of my eyes. Blood, most likely. I blinked a few times to get into focus. To my left, a man stood over me, his face contorted into a victorious smile. Who was he? Why was he here? He must have been a doctor or scientist of some sort, for he was wearing clean, white clothing. How he kept himself impeccably clean was a mystery, as one of the first scents I picked up in this room was that of blood. Of rotting flesh. Of death.

I shuddered at the thought.

"My child," the man with black hair, blue eyes, and a black beard began, "I'm glad you have finally woken up." His child? What was he talking about?

I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out were groans and growls. Horrified, I covered my mouth, and the doctor chuckled a little bit.

"Welcome to the next life," he said, smiling, "I know this will take some time getting used to, but you have been saved now. Take a look." He reached for a long mirror, and when he held it up to me, I felt my stomach drop out from underneath me at who was looking back at me.

My skin was a light brown color with a few patches where some of the skin was rotting, my arms were not arms, but instead two long blades, and my eyes…my eyes horrified me the most, for they were an eerie yellow color that seemed to glow no matter what area I was in.

Roaring, I smashed the mirror with one of my blades and lunged for the closest target: the doctor. He calmly stepped out of my way as I attempted to slash at him. What was going on? Where was I? More importantly, _what _was I? I didn't look like the other man. What was he, then, if he wasn't me? Frustrated, I tried to attack him again, but he suddenly grabbed me by the upper arms and forced me back down onto the lab bench where I had woken up.

"I am your creator," he told me in a calm voice, "And you are my child. It wouldn't be wise to attack me. I am your savior, after all."

Savior? From what?

I growled again, but as I noticed a dangerous expression flash across his face, I began to relax and let my mind wander off. Closing my eyes for a minute, I shook my head. Why was I created? How was I able to understand his speech right now?

"I'm going to try something," the doctor announced, "I need you to stay still." And grabbing a saw from a nearby table, he chopped off one of my arms with little effort. I roared in pain again and looked down at the remaining tissue, but the man didn't seem fazed.

"Wait for it," he muttered to himself, "Wait for it." And sure enough, the tissue and bone began regenerating again for the next few seconds until my arm was as good as new. As if the doctor hadn't sliced it off in the first place.

"Brilliant," he mumbled. I, too, was fascinated by this. I was something that could regenerate its body parts? I had to admit this was pretty cool, albeit scary at the same time.

"I can't believe it worked," my creator continued on, talking to himself, "I _knew _it would." I blinked and tilted my head to the side. After pacing around for a little bit, the man turned to face me.

"You're a Necromorph," he explained to me, holding up a picture of another being that looked almost exactly like me, "But you're a unique type. We need to go around the ship and convert those who have not ascended yet." Ascended to what? There were so many questions in my mind, but I couldn't verbalize them save from grunts and growls.

A Necromorph. That didn't sound like a good thing, but the doctor sure made it seem like that. "You're going to help me with this," he told me. I frowned for a second. I hadn't exactly agreed to this, but what could I do? I couldn't defy my creator. Could I?

For the next few hours, I underwent experiment after experiment as my creator tested my abilities. Everything came out positive, which pleased him to no end. Pulling out a recorder, he began to make an observation into it.

"Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer," he spoke into it. _Challus Mercer, _I thought, _That's his name! _

"The subject continues to respond well to my experiments," he reported, "Its cellular fortitude, not to mention elasticity, is remarkable. Dr. Kyne, I'm sure, would disapprove. But I do not anticipate that issue, as the good doctor is busying himself with the Marker. As if that matters now! He has also succumbed to the same dementia that afflicted the colony. Only yesterday, he'd told me he'd spoken to his wife, but Amelia Kyne has been dead for some years."

Suddenly, I heard a low rumble in my stomach, and I clutched myself as I growled. After waking up without remembering anything, I felt hungry. But what did Necromorphs eat?

"My subject grows restless," Mercer whispered, "Patience. Your time is soon. Very soon." He ended the recording there. I continued to groan as my stomach rumbled. Why did I have a sudden need to eat something?

"Try this," Mercer said, handing me a severed arm. Glancing down at it, I suddenly felt sick for some reason. But why?

"This is all you need to be nourished," the doctor insisted, holding the arm out. I glared at him, and after awkwardly using one of my blades to take the arm out of his hand, I raised it to my mouth and began to bite down on it. Mercer nodded, eyeing me intently as I stuffed my face full. This was repulsive, but if I was going to survive, I needed to eat. And a severed arm was better than nothing.

Once I was finished, I wiped my blade clean and looked up at Mercer again, almost as if to say, "Now what?"

"Follow me," he whispered, moving forward to guide me off the lab table. I felt awkward as I began to walk on my own two feet, but I soon got used to it. One hand was telling me to just kill Mercer and be done with it, and the other hand told me otherwise. Over these last few hours, he had taken care of me. He fed me and checked my vitals. I couldn't just throw that all away!

I grunted again in an attempt to ask a question, though I couldn't speak at all. Instead, I pointed to myself and gave my creator a questioning look. He just smiled and shook his head.

"You've got a lot to learn, Hunter," he commented, and I tilted my head to the side in confusion. _Hunter? _I thought to myself. What was I supposed to be hunting?

"You are about to test your strength now," Mercer whispered, and he moved aside as someone staggered towards us. Another man, from the looks of it. Almost immediately, I narrowed my eyes and flexed my blade arms as reasoning went out the window and instinct took over. My stomach twisted in knots, and I realized what I had to do. What I was _born _to do.

Marching forward, I began to slash at the man, whose cries of agony barely affected me. He barely put up a fight, and when it looked like he was on his last leg, I impaled him with one of my blades and lifted him high into the air. Taking my other arm, I quickly began to put him out of his misery, slicing off his legs and arms before decapitating him. As I roared in victory, I felt horrified at the same time. What had I just done?

"Strong _and _fast," Mercer mused, "You, my child, are a success. Come, Hunter. It is time for you to rest." I glanced at the corpse in front of me and gulped. This was all new to me. Before I could even get my footing again, I was already killing people. This was a lot to take in at once, so maybe rest would be good, as well as a chance to find out more about myself.

Mercer and I continued to walk until we arrived at a Chemistry Lab. "You will rest in here until it is time for you to awaken," my creator announced. I glared at him as he said this.

"Don't worry, my child," he whispered, "You will get your moment of glory soon. Just be patient."

I growled as he pressed a button, and suddenly, I felt my eyes grow heavy. Soon, all I saw around me was darkness, and everything went silent as I began to dream.


	2. The Secrets in the Darkness

Thank you to those of you who have read and reviewed so far! I really appreciate it! Here's the next chapter of "Through Yellow Eyes"! :)

**DISCLAIMER: **Everyone belongs to Visceral Games and EA.

_Italics- _Audio Transmissions

* * *

Darkness. It was overtaking me, dragging me down through many layers until I thought I was dead. I couldn't move. I couldn't open my eyes. I couldn't even _think_, and this scared me the most. How long was I going to be stuck like this? How long was I even in here?

The only thing comforting me in my coma was a dream. The same dream I couldn't remember when I had first woken up as a Necromorph. As I rested in the state I was in now, I could see flashes coming back to me. In the dream, there was a man. Yes, a man and his wife. They both looked happy. They were sitting on a white, sandy beach as they shared a picnic basket and fed each other lovingly. Why was I dreaming of this? This had nothing to do with me.

After sharing the loving moment, the dream instantly changed until the two of them were on a space ship. The _USG Ishimura, _from the looks of it. I had seen that name before, when Mercer was guiding me into the Chemistry Lab. The ship looked exactly the same as it did in the dream: red with blood and body parts. The woman was nowhere to be seen, but the man was strapped down to a lab bench not unlike the one I had woken up in. What was he doing there? Why wasn't he trying to escape? That was when the dream changed yet again until I saw someone I was not familiar with at all: another man in what looked like a pressurized suit. Carrying a Plasma Cutter in his hand, he ran around the _Ishimura, _killing every Necromorph in his path. Horrified, I watched as he dismembered all of them, which made me realize how Necromorphs could be killed. He didn't seem to understand the situation at hand here. Why was he going around killing my kind? Did he not realize that this was the life he was supposed to choose? That was what Challus Mercer had said, and since I didn't know any better, I believed him one hundred percent. That was where the dream ended and pulled me back into the darkness I couldn't wake up from.

But then I realized something: I couldn't be killed the same way the other Necromorphs could. I was more powerful than that. I could regenerate dismembered limbs. But how? What I didn't realize was that I would soon find out.

* * *

After what felt like days, I was finally able to open my eyes on my own, though I couldn't move anything else. Flicking my gaze from left to right, I looked around at the Chemistry Lab again and took note of a Necromorph in the capsule next to me. It looked exactly like me, but not as advanced. Perhaps this one was a failure.

Mercer said he would wake me up when it was time, but this was too early! Or was I defying my creator?

Damn. I didn't want to think about it.

To my right, the door suddenly opened, and someone entered the room. Unfortunately, I couldn't move to break out of my capsule, so I was forced to watch as the man ran around the blood-stained room, collecting various items from boxes stored around the place. At one point, he moved close to me and reached for the Power Node in the cabinet next to me, and at that moment, I realized who he was: the man from my dreams. The Necromorph killer. I narrowed my eyes and attempted to growl at him out of instinct, but I couldn't.

After he was finished, he moved over to a desk on my left and began to mix something. "_Processing request,_" a voice announced, "_Please stand by._" A few seconds passed.

"_Antigen compound completed. Please remove the capsule._" All the doors in the room were locked, so where was he supposed to go now?

"What are you doing?" another voice asked, and the man glanced up as the windows in the corner opened and Challus Mercer appeared.

"Your fight for survival is admirable, but pointless," Mercer continued, "And yet, you keep on going! It almost makes me think that we have hope as a species." The man remained silent. He didn't say much, did he?

"Am I the only one who sees that we have died out a long time ago? We just haven't accepted it yet." So _that _was what he meant when he was talking about ascension!

"Stop running," Mercer ordered, "Stop your struggle. Our future, _your _future, the future of our race ends here! Allow me to introduce you to humanity's child. The children that will replace us! Our greatest creation." With that, Mercer walked away, and suddenly, I heard a voice in my ear.

"_Hunter,_" Mercer whispered, "_It's time._"

And following that, I could suddenly move! Shaking myself off, I finally growled as the man whirled around and backed up. I was quite proud of myself for being so intimidating. With a _bang_, I broke out of my capsule, flexed my blade arms, and stomped towards the man, who raised his Plasma Cutter and began to shoot at my limbs. Though I stumbled back in pain, I had to smirk to myself. This murderer was clueless. He didn't know what I could do.

Once he finished dismembering me, I collapsed to the ground and curled up into a ball, roaring as I felt my arms and legs regenerate. I glanced up for a minute as I noticed the man back up in horror again, raising his Plasma Cutter to strike again as we both heard a voice.

"_You can't kill it, Isaac!_" a woman informed him, "_It's just going to keep regenerating! Get out of there! Run!_"

"It"? She referred to me as "it"? Like I was just some creature? I didn't have time to think about it as the man-Isaac- suddenly hurled some blue energy at me and made a run for it through the side door.

Once I was finished regenerating, I slowly stood up, but a little too slow. That damn Isaac had somehow managed to slow me down! He was going to pay for this! I would kill for my creator!

Roaring, I flexed my regenerated arms as I stomped through the door after Isaac. I would let him know I was giving chase. As he continued to run, I suddenly spotted a vent next to me and climbed into it.

"_Hunter,_" Mercer hissed into a small communicator he had equipped me with, "_Whatever you do, don't let the engineer survive. Show him your power._" I grunted in response. Yes, master. I would show him who he was messing with, but not until after I fulfilled my own agenda first.

I continued to crawl through the vents as I desperately searched for Isaac for more reasons than just to kill him. I wanted to know more about him, such as why he was killing Necromorphs. Ask questions and kill later was my philosophy.

Any time there was an opening, I peered through to see if Isaac was around, and he just looked behind him as I roared in an attempt to intimidate him. He was clearly frightened, which pleased me to no end. His Plasma Cutter shook in his hands.

I heard more voices as I crawled through the vents, and I peered down to see Isaac and Mercer having another confrontation. "Your persistence surprises me," Mercer commented as he paced back and forth, "Holding onto your final breath, you claw your way along. You hold on to what was once your world. But now, it belongs to the children." Isaac didn't say a word, which made me think someone had stolen his voice as a child.

"Be glad of the knowledge that _your death_…will bring their birth." So humans had to die for my kind to be born? That almost didn't seem fair. _Almost._

As I continued to crawl, my blade got caught in the floor, and I roared in pain again. "Listen," Mercer whispered, "Can you hear it? It's coming. Say your prayers." I shuddered at those chilling words. My creator meant business. If I didn't kill Isaac, what would become of me?

Isaac made his way into the next room, where I quickly traversed my way there as well, breaking through the vent and marching towards the engineer again. He had escaped me once; he wouldn't escape again. Out of nowhere, I saw the blue ball of energy again, and I side stepped it so as not to get caught in that trap again. I glanced over at the door for a minute to see it was locked. Perfect. Now it was just the two of us plus some other Necromorphs. Isaac went around killing the others, and I waited patiently until he was finished so I could corner him.

Raising my arm, I slashed at his chest, which caused him to groan and stumble back. Now was my chance. I closed in on him and backed him up into a wall as I used my other blade to lift his chin up to mine. As I slashed him again, something flew out of his pocket, and when I glanced down, I saw it was a photograph of a woman. A blonde woman, from the looks of it.

_Boom! Boom! Boom! _I felt searing pain in my arms, and while I stumbled back, Isaac slowed me down again and then made a run for it. Once everything snapped back to normal for me, I stopped and picked up the photograph. I silently admonished myself for failing to kill the engineer when I had him cornered, but I couldn't help it.

I studied the blonde woman in the picture, and when I flipped it over, I noticed the writing. _Nicole Brennan, _I thought, _Is that why Isaac is here? To find her?_

Growling, I ripped the picture in two. Why was it that he knew everything about himself and I didn't? It was unfair! I had to admit I was jealous of the engineer a little bit. That made me want to kill him even more. The idea that I harbored these human feelings wouldn't sit well with Mercer. Not at all.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I was still wandering around in the same room when all the air suddenly disappeared. Why did I care? I didn't need it to survive anyway!

_All right, Hunter, _I chided myself, _When Isaac comes back, try and speak to him. You can do it!_

I first tried sounding out Nicole's name, but to no avail. I had to try, or else Isaac wouldn't understand me. What was his purpose in life?

Perhaps I wasn't paying attention, or I wasn't feeling like myself, for suddenly, the door opened up ahead, and after killing the other Necromorphs in the room, Isaac fled past me and continued running. I growled in an attempt to get his attention, and I failed. "_Hunter!_" Mercer hissed, "_You aren't taking care of him like I asked you to. I will give you one more chance. Do not fail me!_" With that, I ran and climbed into the vents as I stalked Isaac for the rest of his journey in the Medical Deck. I _had _to know about him at this point. Screw Mercer! Screw ascension!

I continued to crawl until I reached a dead end, and using my blade, I pushed my way through until I confronted Isaac again. This time, I would get him. In the middle of the room was a freezing chamber, and as soon as I realized what Isaac was trying to do, I swooped in for the kill. I slashed at him even more furiously now in an attempt to weaken him, but he was still strong. He dismembered me and managed to lure me into the freezing chamber, where he slowed me down again, ran into a control room across from us, and pressed a button. With that, I roared as I felt my body freeze and curl up into a ball, and I closed my eyes yet again as I embraced the familiar darkness.


	3. One Chance Too Many

All right! I know I said this would be four chapters, but I decided to make it a three-shot instead. It just seemed more fitting. Anyway, here's the final chapter! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this! And I can't wait to get Dead Space 2! :)

**DISCLAIMER: **Only the name Harry Hunter is mine. Everyone else, as well as any dialogue from the game, belongs to Visceral Games and EA.

_Italics- _Audio/Video transmissions

* * *

_Tsk, tsk, tsk_. That was the first thing I heard as soon as I could open my eyes again. Everything was cold around me, which reminded me of how I had ended up in this predicament in the first place: Isaac! He had frozen me here after Mercer had revealed his plan to ship more of my kind over to planet Earth. I had to admit this bothered me. What was my purpose, then, if it wasn't to go to earth with my brethren?

"Hunter," a voice growled, making me flinch as I glanced around. I was still in the freezing chamber Isaac had lured me into, but my specific pod was in a different location. Looking up, I spotted Mercer standing in front of me with an ambiguous expression on his face. It wasn't angry, but a little more disappointed than anything else.

"I don't understand," Mercer continued, resting a hand on the frozen glass in front of me. I glanced down in shame.

"I created you to be indestructible, and you let a mere human stop you from converting him," he scolded, "I thought you were a little bit more competent than that." I closed my eyes and shook my head. If I could speak, I would have apologized right then and there, but that didn't seem to be happening any time soon.

Upon seeing my mortified expression, Mercer let up a little bit and began to pace around the chamber. "Very well," he decided, "I shall give you one last chance to redeem yourself. If I thaw you out right now, will you be able to hold up your end of the deal?" I nodded as much as I could since I was still frozen solid.

"Good," Mercer whispered, "Do not fail me this time." Moving around in a circle, he pressed various buttons, and I suddenly felt a little bit of heat underneath me. I knew it would take hours to completely melt the ice, which would give me a lot of time to think about my failures. I wanted to make my creator happy, but at the same time, I knew what I wanted for myself, too. Shouldn't _that _have mattered as well?

I thought back to that picture of Nicole Brennan I had ripped in two, and my jealousy towards Isaac crept back into my stomach. He had everything in the world: a beautiful woman, a beating heart, and a will to live. And what did I have? Blades for arms, grunts as my method of speech, a creator who was losing his faith in me, and no memories of what I was doing before I woke up. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead, which was not just from the heat being used to thaw me out.

As the hours passed, I found I was able to move more and more, and by the time the ice began to melt around my mouth, I began to try and speak again, and to my surprise, I was able to utter one word.

"I-Isaac," I groaned under my breath, gasping in shock. I had just spoken Isaac's name! Even though it sounded warbled, I had still said my first word! How ironic that it was the name of the Necromorph murderer that I had to utter first. I growled to myself.

Once I was finished thawing out, I managed to let myself out of the chamber I was in by breaking through the glass. Mercer was gone, having wandered off to take care of business with a few other survivors. Anyone affiliated with the doctor knew what _that_ meant. I shuddered again.

Flexing my arms, I stumbled around the room, studying various photographs of people aboard the _USG Ishimura _before the Necromorphs arrived. None of them caught my attention until I spotted the last one: a picture of a couple at the beach. The same couple from my dream!

Unlike Nicole's picture, I decided not to rip this one until I found out what was going on. Pocketing the photo, I ambled out of the room and began heading back towards the Medical Deck until I arrived in the room where I had confronted Isaac before. Sure enough, the ripped picture of Nicole was still there, and after finding some tape in a bloody drawer, I began to patch the picture back up so that I could look at it in its entirety again. Why I was doing this, I wasn't sure. _Maybe Isaac wants this picture back,_ I thought to myself.

I turned to leave the room when I suddenly spotted something else: two audio logs that the human must have dropped in his haste to get away from me before. I decided to carry those with me as well so that I could eventually listen to them. I was curious about what I would find.

* * *

After placing the photographs of Nicole and the other couple next to each other, I sat down in Mercer's chair and began to play the first audio log. "_You can't hold me here!_" a frantic voice cried.

"_Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer,_" Mercer began, "_I now have a live subject in my study. I'm eager to validate my tissue regeneration theory._" Tissue regeneration theory? Something was a little too familiar about that.

"_Initial restraint was problematic,_" Mercer continued, "_But now, the patient is resting comfortably. He trusts me, Dr. Kyne. He puts his life in my hands! He knows his part in all of this! He understands what I'm doing!_"

"_No! Let me out of here, please!_" the other voice begged desperately. I closed my eyes for a minute and winced.

"_The forehead has been swabbed clean and marked._"

"_What…what are you doing with that?_" A high-pitched, whirring noise followed that frantic question.

"_And now, I'm attempting to create a passage to insert the sample tissue into…_"

"_No! NO! AHHHHHHH!_" After that, the audio log ended, and I put the small recorder down in shock. After listening to that, I had to listen to the next one, though I had an awful feeling as to what would be on it.

"_Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer,_" Mercer began once again, "_The subject continues to respond well to my experiments. Its cellular fortitude, not to mention elasticity, is remarkable! Dr. Kyne, I'm sure, would disapprove. But I do not anticipate that issue, as the good doctor is busying himself with the Marker. As if that matters now! He has also succumbed to the same dementia that afflicted the colony. Only yesterday, he told me he'd spoken to his wife…but Amelia Kyne has been dead for some years." _

Suddenly, growling echoed in the background. "_My subject grows restless,_" Mercer whispered, "_Patience. Your time is soon. Very soon._" The recording ended there, and something horrifying clicked for me in that moment.

_Was that me pleading for help in the first audio log? _I wondered to myself. Now that I had done this, I was even more curious as to what had happened to me before waking up as a Regenerator. Tossing aside various papers, I was careful with Mercer's journals, which had information on me, no doubt. Flipping through them, I felt my stomach sink again when I realized that the lab rat _was _me: a medical officer named Harry Hunter. As I continued to read on about how Mercer had inserted a sample of the Necromorph tissue into my brain, I felt sick. No wonder I had been able to still feel human emotions while other Necromorphs had lost that part of themselves! Perhaps if they had still been alive during infection like I had, they would have ended up like me.

_Damn you, Mercer, _I thought to myself, _And you, too, Isaac!_ Hugging myself with the blunt ends of my blades and rocking back and forth slightly, I closed my eyes and felt small tears begin to run down my cheeks. Tossing all the papers aside and grabbing the picture of Nicole again, I bolted back out into the hallways after noticing that Isaac was now on the Mining Deck. Did he really think he was going to get out of here scot free? Not by my watch! If I couldn't escape, then neither could he.

By the time I arrived on Deck C of the Mining Deck, I suddenly realized just how crazy I looked as I mumbled Isaac's name to myself and paced around, clutching Nicole's picture in my blades. Some of the other Necromorphs that were prowling around the currently inaccessible deck glanced at me, but didn't bother to approach me. Not that I wanted them to, anyway. I wanted to be left alone.

_Clank! _A clanking noise echoed through the deck, followed by the sound of a motor, which made me realize one thing: someone was using the elevator. And I had an idea as to who it was.

Screeches reverberated off the walls from above, followed by the familiar sound of a Plasma Cutter dismembering the Necromorphs. I felt myself shake in fury over the entire situation at hand. I had lost _everything _that was important to me, and here was Isaac, thinking he was a hero as he murdered the Necromorphs. Forget trying to figure out why he was here; I would show him who was boss this time. I would make him see what it was like to have everything taken away from him. He would be the first to go, and then Mercer if I felt like it.

Peering through the locked gate, I watched as the elevator descended down to Deck D, and even though I was surrounded by mist, I would make sure Isaac saw me. Just as he was reloading his Plasma Cutter, I pressed my face into the gate until all he could see were my eyes, and I was satisfied at the horrified tremor in his voice as he looked up and noticed me.

"AHH!" he gasped, leaping backwards and staring up at me as he continued to go down. He raised his Plasma Cutter and shot at me, and I felt the Plasma Energy barely graze the side of my face.

"ISAAC!" I roared at the top of my lungs, rattling the locked cage and then sharpening my blades as loud as possible in an attempt to intimidate him. It seemed to work for the most part, thankfully.

Deciding that I had no more purpose waiting around the Mining Deck, I climbed back into the vent I had crawled through to wander off in another part of the ship.

* * *

By the time I got back to the chamber I had been frozen in, I found Mercer standing by the messy pile of papers I had created in my anger before. "I was not aware that you had broken out of your freezing chamber," he began calmly, picking up the picture of me as a human and studying it.

"You shouldn't wander around without my guidance," he continued, and I flexed my arms again as I gritted my teeth. Suddenly getting the urge to kill him, I marched towards him and attempted to slash at him again, and just like in the lab I had woken up in, Mercer sidestepped my attacks and just smiled calmly, leaving me frustrated.

"Hunter," he scolded gently, "What have I told you before? You shouldn't attack your creator."

_Creator? _I thought viciously, _You're no better than Isaac! Both of you can go to hell!_

"Did you go through my journals before?" he asked, reorganizing the papers I had thrown everywhere, "Did you find anything interesting?" I just grunted as an answer.

"Someday, Hunter, you will completely understand," Mercer assured me, "I had to do it. For your own good. You wouldn't have gotten to move on to the next life. And for that, I envy you a little bit."

_Challus Mercer _envied _me_? _That _was a good one. I could have laughed at those words, but I was too angry to see any humor in them. If he wanted to "ascend", why didn't he just ask me to kill him already?

"The sooner you kill the engineer," Mercer added as he stroked a metal stake, "The better."

A while later, I found myself wandering around the Bridge. Without Isaac around, I was surprisingly bored. There weren't any other survivors around as far as I was concerned. Either Mercer had slaughtered them or the Necromorphs had gotten them. I didn't want to think about it.

The sound of soft footsteps greeted my super sharp ears, and after investigating, I watched as Isaac crept through the hallway with his Plasma Cutter in his hands. Tiptoeing up to a hole in the window, I waited for him to pass by before trying to scare him again.

"_Isaac,_" I hissed in my low voice, and I growled as he stopped and looked around for a minute before continuing on. I had to admit he was brave. Even if he jumped at minor things, he was still going through the ravaged _Ishimura _with little to no effort. He was a real trooper. But that wasn't going to help him now. I would still get him. I just had to wait for the right opportunity.

* * *

_**Hours later…**_

"_Get to the Crew Deck,_" Mercer ordered through the communicator he had given me from before, "_The engineer is there now trying to repair the last working shuttle._"

Although I was still steamed with Mercer for what he had done to me while I was human, I still found myself reluctantly following orders. It was all part of my instincts, I guessed. I used the vents once again until I arrived in Sleep Block C, where Isaac was picking up the last of three Navigation Cards. All around him were bodies, and I had to admit it was sickening to see how many of them had listened to Mercer when they had another choice. Unfortunately, I didn't have that choice.

"_This time, there will be no escape for you, my friend,_" Mercer whispered to Isaac through his RIG, "_You have been most resourceful up until now, but my creation is free! Reborn in the fierce heat of life itself! Now, it's time to play your part!_"

That was my cue to begin my assault. And assault I did. Just when I was getting ready to close in on the arrogant engineer, he slowed me down once more with Stasis and then used some sort of Kinesis Module to move the bunks in order to block my path. Roaring in frustration, I attempted to move them aside, but to no avail. Instead, I used the vents to stalk him once more. He wouldn't get away this time! If I was going down, he was going down with me.

Once I found a convenient opening, I leaped down into the room he was in and began to follow him around as he waited for one of the doors to open up again. While he was trapped, I cornered him and slashed at him, effectively cutting him across the chest and arms once again. As he attempted to shoot at me with his Pulse Rifle, I reached for the picture of me when I was alive and threw it at his face, watching as he knelt down, picked it up, and studied it for a second. He then glanced from it to me, almost in understanding. _Almost._

"_Okay, I bypassed the lock!_" a woman announced, "_Get out of there!_" Isaac saw that opportunity to leave. After healing himself quickly, he used Stasis on me again before running out of the room. Damn him! He had gotten away _again_! He was _really _going to pay for it now. Once the Stasis wore off, I climbed back into another vent and began to stalk him through the Crew Deck once more.

"_Hunter,_" Mercer whispered, "_Remember what I told you._"

"Isaac," I hissed under my breath in understanding.

Mercer seemed surprised. "_You can speak?_" he asked, floored, "_I wasn't aware of that._"

"Isaac!" I repeated a little more insistently. Mercer chuckled.

"_Yes, take care of the engineer whatever way you can._"

I rolled my eyes to myself. After I was finished with Isaac, Mercer would definitely be next.

For the next half hour to hour, I continued to stalk the engineer through the Crew Deck as he attempted to repair the shuttle. I couldn't let him get away with this.

It felt like forever before I finally burst through another vent and cornered him. He was testing the shuttle engines. Good thing I landed in the same room as him. He began to raise his Plasma Cutter, but not before I smacked it out of his hand and forced him to retreat. He ran back out into the main loading area, where a bunch of other Necromorphs attacked him. Unfortunately, Isaac managed to reach for another one of his weapons to take care of them. I roared again at the top of my lungs and stomped towards the human in an attempt to inflict more damage. I must have not been paying attention or something, because I suddenly felt myself slow down under the influence of Stasis. Bearing my teeth, I growled at Isaac as he retreated into the control room, and in horror, I watched as he pressed a button on the left control panel. _NO! _I thought.

"_Test firing shuttle engines,_" a female voice announced before the ground started to shake. Before I could think too clearly, I already felt the heat from the engine before I saw the large flames, and I suddenly found myself engulfed in the fire.

"ISAAC!" I shouted at the top of my lungs again as I curled up into a defensive ball, but there was no way to get around this. I was toast. Literally and figuratively.

Everything burned, and I knew there would be no way for me to regenerate anything this time: I was only designed to regenerate severed limbs. At that moment, I choked on my own, dry throat as I collapsed to the ground. In the distance I could hear voices. A man saying he would "make us whole again". But not me. It was too late for me. I was always doomed from the moment I woke up as a Necromorph.

As I took my last breath of this life, I managed to salvage the photographs I had been carrying with me the whole time, and as Isaac exited the control room and approached me, I coughed again and pushed them towards him feebly.

"Isaac," I whispered, "I…I…"

What could I say? That he had won and I had lost? That humanity still had a fighting chance? It seemed true. He had beaten me somehow. Maybe this was how it was meant to be. Challus Mercer wouldn't like it, but what was done was done.

As my vision faded in and out, I watched as he crouched down and picked up the charred pictures. "Nicole?" he whispered, marking the first time I had heard him speak, "How did you get this?"

I coughed for a third time. "I-Isaac," I whispered feebly, but I couldn't say anything else.

I wondered if he pitied me at all. A part of me wanted him to, and the other part didn't. But something seemed to register in his stance. "Oh," he gasped in understanding. He finally got what I was trying to say when he saw the picture of me in my old life.

"No worries," Isaac said in a neutral tone of voice, "I'll make us whole again." I wasn't sure who he was talking to, me or someone else.

I tried to reach out a blade to him, but he only glanced down at me before picking up the Power Node next to me and walking away.

_Well, there goes my shot at humanity, _I thought, and as I closed my eyes this time, I knew I wouldn't wake up again. It was time to move on to yet another life, and that was exactly what I did.

As everything faded to black around me, I suddenly saw myself as a human again, and standing in front of me was my wife. "I knew you would come back, Harry," she said to me, taking my hand and holding a picnic basket in her other hand.

"I told you I would be back," I told her, and as the world went silent around me, all I saw in front of me was me and my wife as we walked along the white, sandy beach.

That was the _real _ascension.


End file.
